1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to a method for the treatment of plant material to provide a protein-rich product and/or oil relatively free of gossypol, and a gossypol-containing complex possessing insecticidal activity.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Gossypol is a known poisonous pigment found in plant material such as cottonseed and cotton leaves, and it has been the object of schemes for removal therefrom.
Previous attempts to remove gossypol from cottonseed meal have included extraction with hexane, ethers, alcohols, ketones, metal salts, or aliphatic or aromatic amines.
Schmidt et al. [Analytical Biochemistry 154, 244-249 (1986)] disclosed that Tris/borate buffer containing urea was effective for the removal of gossypol from cotton leaf tissue in cotton leaf protein studies. However, while this process allowed the removal of gossypol from plant material, it did not provide a convenient process allowing mechanical separation of the urea/gossypol/borate complex from the gossypol-free material, or recovery of a purified complex possessing insecticidal activity.